VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of researchers with Princeton University, the United States, has found a way to weaken the strong bonds between the nitrogen and hydrogen atoms in ammonia molecules while simultaneously releasing a single hydrogen atom to create hydrogen gas. In their paper published in the journal Science, Máté Bezdek, Sheng Guo and Paul Chirik describe the process and the likelihood of using it as a new hydrogen source.

In this new effort, the researchers have found an efficient means for doing so that not only weakens the bond, but also causes the release of one of the hydrogen atoms making it available to bond with another to create hydrogen gas. The new process involves using an ammonia-bound terpyridine bis(phosphine) molybdenum(I) cation, because it is both electron rich and positively charged. In so doing, the nitrogen–hydrogen bond is cleaved homolytically, resulting in a lone hydrogen atom and an M–N bond.